A. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – ANTICIPATED LITIGATION 

Janie Hoy/Sara Young Attorney -
Ernest Bell Significant Exposure to Litigation – Three Cases

IDR Case Number 20161118
IDR Case Number 20161215
Special Education Program Location Change
(Pursuant to Government Code § 54956.9(d)(2))

at 5:37

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 to approve IDR Case Number 20161118 and IDR Case Number 20161215

EXHIBIT A-1

EXHIBIT A-2 

Kristen Vital/Clark Hampton/Susan Holiday
Attorney- David Huff
Significant Exposure to Litigation - Two Cases
(Pursuant to Government Code § 54956.9(d)(2)(3))

CONFLICT OF INTEREST TRUSTEE LYNN HATTON HODSON?

2ND CASE SUPERINTENDENT VITAL?

Note: Superintendent Vital- Trustee Hatton-Hodson and Attorney Huff were not present at the Conflict of Interest Training January 18, 2017.

at 5:55

THE BOARD WILL RETURN TO CLOSED SESSION AFTER THE MEETING TO ADDRESS THIS ITEM

Challenge to Student Records
Susan Holiday
Attorney - Anthony De Marco/Lexe Davidson
(Pursuant to Government Code § 49070 (c))

at 6:07

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 to sustain the decision of the Administration to deny the challenge to student records.

B. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION

Janie Hoy/Sara Young
Attorney - Ernest Bell
Significant Exposure to Litigation – Four Cases
District Court Case 8:16-cv-0001000
OAH Case Number 2016030010/2016020203
OAH Case Number 2016100160
OAH Case Number 2016110313
(Pursuant to Government Code § 54956.9(d)(1))

at 6:23

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 TO APPROVE ALL FOUR CASES

EXHIBIT B-1 

EXHIBIT B-2 

EXHIBIT B-3 

EXHIBIT B-4 

C. BOARD POLICY 4301 APPEAL TO THE BOARD REGARDING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT AGAINST EMPLOYEES

at 7:10 

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 TO CONTINUE THIS ITEM TO THE FEBRUARY 22, 2017 BOARD MEETING

D. STUDENT EXPULSIONS

Mike Beekman
Five Cases (Six Cases?)

Case Number 2017-014
Case Number 2017-015
Case Number 2017-017
Case Number 2017-018
Case Number 2017-020
Case Number 2017-021

at 7:24

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 TO APPROVE ALL SIX CASES

EXHIBIT D-1 

EXHIBIT D-2

EXHIBIT D-3

EXHIBIT D-4

EXHIBIT D-5

EXHIBIT D-6

E. STUDENT READMISSIONS

Mike Beekman
One Case
Case Number 2016-024

at 7:53

TRUSTEES VOTED 6-0-1 TO APPROVE THE READMISSION 

F. PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE/DISMISSAL/RELEASE

Susan Holiday
One Case
(Pursuant to Government Code §54957)

at 8:02

BOARD GAVE DIRECTION TO STAFF

Gordan Amerson
One Case
(Pursuant to Government Code §54957)

at 8:10

BOARD WILL RETURN TO CLOSED SESSION AFTER THE MEETING TO DISCUSS THIS ITEM

G. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE

Superintendent
(Pursuant to Government Code §54957)

at 8:24

BOARD WILL RETURN TO CLOSED SESSION AFTER THE MEETING TO DISCUSS THIS ITEM

at 36:27

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek. 

Any Donation over $1,000 should be itemized. CUSD is hiding payments for teachers salaries, aids and librarians as "non-instructional materials".

at 37:39

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek. 

I wanted to bring 4 Contracts to the Boards Attention that are of concern to me:

Nicole Miller & Associates HR Investigative services relating to complaints and claims. $85,000 Contract for period 9-1-16 to 6-30-17. Why is staff asking for approval after work has already begun? 

Dennis Patrick Hanna Provide semi-annual testing for AHERA periodic surveillance at various District sites. $18,470.00. Thank you for doing this work. Contract is for period 7-1-16 to 6-30-17 Why is staff asking for approval after work has already begun? 

The College Blueprint provide student/parent workshops and support. Increase contract amount from $28,900 to $38,600. We have 128 indian students. 

Just in this Board Agenda alone CUSD has contracts for Indian Education totaling:

• College Blueprint $38,600
• Star Academy $33,025
• Professional Tutors of America $116,211

Total: $187,836.00 

That is $1,467.47 per pupil.

Album Agency provide interior and exterior photos of re-imagined schools. Increase contract by $5,000 from $80,500 to $86,450 CUSD is trying to "re-brand" seven schools in CUSD that are at risk of closing due to small enrollment. This is marketing and not much substance. See Agenda Item #34 below.

Staff is executing contracts without Board approval. If you look at the dates of these contracts work has already been started on every single one.

BLUE CARD - Dawn Urbanek

When you have a contract for an item at a specified price, why is CUSD agreeing to remove an item because the price has increased? Isn't that why you have a contract- to ensure you get the item at the contracted price?

BLUE CARD - Dawn Urbanek

This is a $350,000 contract for the period September 27, 2016 - September 26, 2017. Trustees are being asked to approve a contract that is after-the -fact (4 months ago).

Why is there such a difference in the bids? 

Singh Group Inc $8,180 weighted calculation

West Coast Arborists $3,616.70 weighted calculation 

Staff chose West Coast Arborists without Board approval.

at 37:56

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

This Item is linked to Agenda Item #15

and

Agenda Item #19 Board Policy 5119 School of Choice

Agenda Item #7 Is a contract to lease (16) 24' X 40' Portable Classrooms + (2) 12 X 40 Restrooms for Tesoro 

Agenda Item #15 Is a contract to remove 22 existing Portable Classrooms and replace them with a new 24 classroom building.

The discussion at the January 25, 2017 Board meeting revealed that Tesoro would actually loose classrooms for 2017-18 (removing 22 old portables and leasing 16) and then gaining a new 24 classroom building when construction is complete.

Tesoro High School serves the Cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Coto de Caza and Mission Viejo. 

Tesoro High School, San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School are all impacted, with enrollment numbers that exceed normal high school capacity of 2,400 students.

According to the latest data from CDE enrollment at these three schools was (latest data 2015-16)

• Tesoro: 2,451 
• San Juan Hills: 2,392 
• San Clemente: 3,024 

It is becoming more and more evident that the number of students actually at the sites are greater than stated here due to the impact of the new Rancho Mission Viejo Development which is projected to add:

• 1,118 K-8 students
• 266 HS students

just for the build out of Area 1 Esencia, and Area 2, Sendero. 

The total build out for The Ranch will produce 14,000 homes (8000 that will produce students), and the original IRC projected the need for 5 elementary schools, one middle school and a possible high school.

Due to a lack of funding, the Esencia K-8 school that was projected to open in 2017-18 will now not open until 2018-19.

The Ranch is currently paying for busses to take residents to Las Flores K-8 and Tesoro High School. Both schools are now severely impacted. 

Re: Mello Roos

Ladera Ranch has paid into facilities at both, San Juan Hills and Tesoro, yet CUSD is crafting a School of Choice policy that will deny them seats at Tesoro if the school is impacted. 

Talega has paid into the facilities at both San Juan Hills and San Clemente High and again, CUSD's School of Choice policy denies Talega seats at San Juan Hills if the school is impacted. 

What mitigation is the Ranch offering to give its students priority over Ladera Ranch and Talega taxpayers? 

In the original EIR the County Board of Supervisors included a requirement that the Ranch was responsible for ensuring that adequate school facilities and services would be available at the time of CUSD's need.

That is not the case.

CUSD has begun the process of expanding High School capacity with a $45 million dollar expansion project that does very little to actually increase capacity.

The Negative Declaration for San Clemente campus improvements shows:

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

CUSD is going to vacate the classrooms on the upper campus leaving those facilities vacant, and move those students to the lower campus. 

San Clemente High will loose 37 parking places which will not be replaced.

There will be no change in student or staff numbers on this campus.

The Negative Declaration for San Juan Hills campus improvements shows:

PHASE ONE- New Parking Area - Removal of 146 parking spots, build 157 new parking spots - Net gain 11 parking spots.

PHASE TWO-  Construction of two story classroom building and 5 basketball courts.

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms, 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

Current student population is 2,391. The 24 classrooms would allow for an increase of 648 students making the campus population 3,039. The current staff population on campus would remain as is- "No increase in staff would occur under the proposed project. 

So they plan to add 648 additional students but not hire any additional staff?

The Negative Declaration for Tesoro can not be found.

In conclusion CUSD is spending $45 million dollars and not really getting a lot of new capacity.

Supporting Documentation can be found at: 

at 37:56

This Item was pulled by Trustee Holloway

at 40:32 Concerned that all the trees have been eliminated. Tress are important to an outdoor classroom.

Staff assured Trustee Holloway that there was going to be larger trees than the ones that were removed from the plan.

Trustee Holloway thanked staff and said she did not pick up on that.

The old contract expired December 31, 2016. The extension is for the period January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017. Staff is asking the Board to approve an extension one month after the expiration of an existing contract.

HOW DO YOU "EXTEND" AN "EXPIRED" CONTRACT

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

The Orange County Grand Jury issued a report titled: "Dealing with Asbestos in Orange County Public Schools".  In the report the Grand Jury made detailed recommendations to Orange County school districts to establish documented and transparent processes to comply fully with AHERA requirements, to establish disciplined contracting processes for safely removing asbestos and other hazardous materials, and to commit to plans to remove asbestos from all Orange County schools.

The Capistrano Unified School District was to submit a written response to the presiding judge no later than September 28, 2016.

"The District's practice for responding to Grand Jury requests is for Staff to respond on behalf of the Board, and then share the response with Trustees prior to the response deadline."

Staff responded to the Honorable Charles Margines in a written letter dated September 8, 2016. 

According to Agenda Item, Staff shared the written response with Trustees on September 16, 2016.

There was no Board meeting on September 16, 2016. September Board meetings were on September 14, 2016 and September 28, 2016. The Grand Jury Report was not on either agenda.

In December, the Grand Jury contacted CUSD asking if the response was from the District's governing body. 

This item was placed on the Consent Calendar and would have been approved without discussion if a member of the public had not pulled the Item.

I pulled the item, and expressed some, but not all of my concerns about Staff's response (due to a 3 minute time constraint).

AHERA Reports are to be kept at the District Office for public inspection- CUSD keeps them at the Facilities Office - a violation of Federal Law.

CUSD Staff state's that it cannot comply with the order to complete abatement within the next 20 years due to budget constraints. 

#1 CUSD has given employees over $120 million in across the board compensation increases over the past four years rather than fix and maintain facilities, and 

#2 According to an August 9, 2016 letter from Mayors Frank Ury and Tony Beal CUSD passed a Bond Measure for the specific purpose of fixing Asbestos issues, and did not spend the money as directed. 

CUSD Trustees ratified District's response anyway with a 6-0-1 vote (Trustee Hatton-Hodson absent) 

As a taxpayer, the only relief remaining was to send the information I tried to communicate to the Board to the Grand Jury. That information was sent on January 27, 2017. 

The full Statement and the August 9, 2016 letter from the Mayors is attached to this Item.

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

This Item is linked to Agenda Item #7 Award Bid No. 1617-15, Modular Building Services at Tesoro High School - Class Leasing LLC

and

Agenda Item #19 Board Policy 5119 School of Choice

Tesoro High School serves the Cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Coto de Caza and Mission Viejo. 

Tesoro High School, San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School are all impacted, with enrollment numbers that exceed normal high school capacity of 2,400 students.

According to the latest data from CDE enrollment at these three schools was (latest data 2015-16)

• Tesoro: 2,451 
• San Juan Hills: 2,392 
• San Clemente: 3,024 

It is becoming more and more evident that the number of students actually at the sites are greater than stated here due to the impact of the new Rancho Mission Viejo Development which is projected to add:

• 1,118 K-8 students
• 266 HS students

just for the build out of Area 1 Esencia, and Area 2, Sendero. 

The total build out for The Ranch will produce 14,000 homes (8000 that will produce students), and the original IRC projected the need for 5 elementary schools, one middle school and a possible high school.

Due to a lack of funding, the Esencia K-8 school that was projected to open in 2017-18 will now not open until 2018-19.

The Ranch is currently paying for busses to take residents to Las Flores K-8 and Tesoro High School. Both schools are now severely impacted. 

Re: Mello Roos

Ladera Ranch has paid into facilities at both, San Juan Hills and Tesoro, yet CUSD is crafting a School of Choice policy that will deny them seats at Tesoro if the school is impacted. 

Talega has paid into the facilities at both San Juan Hills and San Clemente High and again, CUSD's School of Choice policy denies Talega seats at San Juan Hills if the school is impacted. 

What mitigation is the Ranch offering to give its students priority over Ladera Ranch and Talega taxpayers? 

In the original EIR the County Board of Supervisors included a requirement that the Ranch was responsible for ensuring that adequate school facilities and services would be available at the time of CUSD's need.

That is not the case.

CUSD has begun the process of expanding High School capacity with a $45 million dollar expansion project that does very little to actually increase capacity.

The Negative Declaration for San Clemente campus improvements shows:

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

CUSD is going to vacate the classrooms on the upper campus leaving those facilities vacant, and move those students to the lower campus. 

San Clemente High will loose 37 parking places which will not be replaced.

There will be no change in student or staff numbers on this campus.

The Negative Declaration for San Juan Hills campus improvements shows:

PHASE ONE- New Parking Area - Removal of 146 parking spots, build 157 new parking spots - Net gain 11 parking spots.

PHASE TWO-  Construction of two story classroom building and 5 basketball courts.

The proposed classroom building: 24 standard classrooms, 2 men’s restrooms, 2 women’s restrooms, and 4 staff restrooms.

Current student population is 2,391. The 24 classrooms would allow for an increase of 648 students making the campus population 3,039. The current staff population on campus would remain as is- "No increase in staff would occur under the proposed project. 

So they plan to add 648 additional students but not hire any additional staff?

The Negative Declaration for Tesoro can not be found.

Agenda Item #7 Is a contract to lease (16) 24' X 40' Portable Classrooms + (2) 12 X 40 Restrooms for Tesoro 

Agenda Item #15 Is a contract to remove 22 existing Portable Classrooms and replace them with a new 24 classroom building.

The discussion at the January 25, 2017 Board meeting revealed that Tesoro would actually loose classrooms for 2017-18 (removing 22 old portables and leasing 16) and then gaining a new 24 classroom building when construction is complete.

In conclusion CUSD is spending $45 million dollars and not really getting a lot of new capacity.

Supporting Documentation can be found at: 

Learn More 

at 45:10

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

CUSD is spending more on professional development that it does on books and supplies. 

CUSD receives one time grant money from the State that must be spent on professional development. CUSD should not use General Fund money for Professional Development when it is relying on fundraising and donations to pay for art, music and science.

The Educator Effectiveness Grant (Professional Development) $3,157,561.00

No General Fund money should be used for Professional Development.

There are no schools from Area 1 Trustee Hanacek or Area 2 Trustee Reardon. Why were 3 schools from Trustee Hatton-Hodson's Area added to the list? What about Equity within CUSD? 

TRUSTEE MC NICHOLAS

This is 3 years and 11 schools so it is reasonable priced.

TRUSTEE REARDON 

Why are we using General Funds when there is Grant Funds for Professional Development? That is the equivalent of 3 teachers.

STAFF- SUSAN HOLIDAY

This is a 3 year contract and the Teacher effectiveness is one time money.

BLUE CARD DAWN URBANEK

Change #1

In the event that a school is closed the Board of Trustees will give direction to which assigned school the displaced students will attend.

Change #2

"After all School of Residence students have been placed, all children of employees will be given priority placement for the 2016-2017 school year at the employees’ work site if there is room in the grade level."

This gives children of employees permanent priority over everyone except School of Residence.

Change #3 (CFD) They eliminated the following language which was on the December 14, 2016 Agenda, but is not part of the current policy.

"For the 2017-2018 school year, the students who reside in the Ladera Ranch CFD portion of Study Area 209 can enroll in either Tesoro High School or San Juan Hills High School. In addition, the students who reside in the Talega CFD portion of Study Area 1500 can enroll in either San Juan Hills High School or San Clemente High School. A School of Choice application must be submitted within the School of Choice application window indicating which site is preferred. If no application is submitted students will be referred to the school they are zoned to attend."

Change #4

From: "If a student has continuously attended their School of Residence and moves anytime during the year, the student may apply for School of Choice upon moving. The student may remain at their approved School of Choice until he/she matriculates to the next level. 

To: If a student has continuously attended their School of Residence and moves anytime during the year, the student may apply for School of Choice upon moving to stay at the current school. The student may remain at their approved School of Choice until he/she matriculates to the next
level unless the school is significantly impacted and the student is displacing a student living in that boundary. 

Change #5

Any student enrolled in a District school that has been identified on the State’s Open Enrollment List or receiving Title I funds that have been identified for program improvement (PI), corrective action, or restructuring. participating in Title 1 Public School Choice.

Change #6 

From: "A student requesting a transfer to his/her School of Residence, after having been accepted into another school through the School of Choice process, will not be guaranteed a place in his/her School of Residence, until after the next School of Choice cycle, unless space is available."

To: "Once approved on School of Choice the approved school becomes the student’s School of Record. In order to return to the original School of Residence, a School of Choice application must be submitted during the School of Choice window. A student requesting a transfer back to his/her School of Residence will not be guaranteed a place in his/her School of Residence, unless space is available."

BLUE CARD Dawn Urbanek

At the November 16, 2016 BOT meeting Superintendent Vital stated on the record that District Staff without Board Approval made the unilateral decision to defund GATE and programing for High Achieving students in CUSD. At that time, Trustee Hatton-Hodson also expressed her opinion that research shows that class size and differentiated learning do not matter. 

How can the public be assured that the research being done will be objective and not skewed to prove the pre-determined opinion of this district who has already dismantled/practically eliminated programing for High Achieving students?

What is the focus of the research regarding the Spanish Immersion program. Is the District seeking to eliminate that program as well?

Saturday School

CUSD is paying teachers $35.00 per hour to teach Saturday School.

6/5ths Assignments page 584

CUSD is approving 56 6/5ths Assignments.

TOSA page 586

Teacher on Special Assignment - According to Transparent CA CUSD had 41 TOSA's in 2015 - that number continues to climb.

Staff Meetings page 588

Teacher at George White are being paid 1 hour to attend Staff meetings on Ace days.

Professional Development Prep Time page 588

Staff is now being paid to prep for professional development.

ASB Funded Assignments page 602

Total $30,495

What happens when the minimum wage goes from $10 per hour to $15? We have a lot of services for CUSD that are dependent on fundraising and other one time monies. CUSD should not be paying on going expenses like teachers salaries with one time moneys.

Entry Level Teachers page 584

Pay $105 per day